Pathfinder

“Pathfinder” is a short documentary that follows Frank and Carrie, two residents of Pathfinder, a unique open-access community for individuals with Down syndrome. The film challenges common assumptions about the relationship between Down syndrome and dementia, offering a humanizing portrayal of both protagonists as they and their families navigate complexities of aging and disability. The film highlights the vital role of family and community in providing unwavering support, and underscores the importance of affirming the integrity, intelligence, and autonomy of individuals living with Down syndrome.

Documentary Short Film Competition

SILENCE

The film is about a man expelled from paradise, who searches for traces of paradise on earth. Despite the many wonderful moments and innocent pleasures he has during the day (prayer, liturgy, lessons, singing, reading, painting), he is in search of another homeland. No one and nothing can fill the emptiness and longing of the homeland, however, the "shadow" of that very homeland allows the hero to feel only solitude, silence, nature, and self-realization.

Documentary Short Film Competition

BLACK BLACK

BLACK BLACK follows WILLY, a Black man in an interracial marriage, who finds his world turned upside-down when leaked group chat messages reveal his partner JOANNA might have some racist ideas. During a family gathering, Joanna shares a video from her phone to the TV, but forgets it is connected when she leaves to use the bathroom. She inadvertently provides a “show” for her guests, including some racially insensitive private conversations. While Willy isn’t one to make a big deal about racism, he can’t get over the messages that seem to target his daughter’s hair. The film explores love, community, and racial consciousness as Willy and Joanna respond to the fallout from this incident.

Narrative Short Film Competition

In Search of Immortality

In Search of Immortality is a deeply personal cinematic journey into the heart of the Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest spiritual gathering. Through the eyes of the filmmaker, we witness not only the breathtaking scale of millions converging at the confluence of three sacred rivers, but also the timeless myths, rituals, and seekers who sustain this ancient tradition. From the legends of Amrit—the nectar of immortality—to the living presence of sadhus, gurus, and devotees, the film explores humanity’s eternal quest to transcend mortality. At once a spectacle and an intimate reflection, it is the odyssey of a mortal being who steps into the sacred flow—seeking answers, and perhaps, immortality itself.

Documentary Competition

J.J.

We follow the foster parents Jahan and Kiersten Bakshi as they attend their foster son’s hearing. The court setting is the central focus, as witnesses and the social service department are fighting for the removal of parental rights to keep J.J. safe from his mentally ill mother. Everything goes as planned, until the hearing takes a turn no one suspected.

Narrative Short Film Competition

40 days

Naguib and his wife Mariam decide to take over a dangerous Journey to the united States starting from central America all the way to the US - Mexico Border facing many tough life threatening obstacles.

Feature Competition Category

Street Muse

Overlooked by passersby, two homeless women forge an intimate moment recalling how it felt once to be beautiful. A sleeping drunk wakes to join them, finding dignity in the soaring lines of the Puccini aria through which they share their stories. 

Narrative Short Film Competition

Crip Trip - Episode #1 'Broken Dreams'

Quadruple amputee Daniel and his caregiver Frederick embark on an ambiguous road trip across North America, navigating art, the television industry, and their complex friendship, to keep Daniel from being institutionalized. Daniel and Fred hit the road to begin their road trip from Edmonton to Toronto, but a major mechanical issue with their RV may see their voyage finished before it’s even started.

Documentary Short Film Competition

Healing Dolls

Testimonials from the women’s group at Mashteuiatsh Puakuteu fill this intimate short film about grief and healing. In doll-making workshops, the women share their doubts and hopes and, in doing so, build a space of strength and solidarity.

Woman Directed Film - Documentary Short

Lyrical - Short Film

A privileged, Black law student, trying to escape pressure from his dad, finds himself in a potential police violence situation with a group of adjudicated youth on probation, led by a talented spoken word artist. The law student must choose between separation from, or solidarity with the youth.

Narrative Short Film Competition

Sites of Memory

As U.S. history becomes controversial to teach in some states, residents of this community come to terms with our past and present in Sumner, Mississippi and Montgomery, Alabama.

Documentary Short Film Competition

Between Life and Death

The struggle for survival of Kiki Tsakiri, a mother totally paralysed with ALS and dependent on an artificial respirator, having to provide her own care and not having the option of euthanasia. Kiki lives in a village on the Greek island of Rhodes. She cannot speak and can only communicate by writing with her eyes on a special computer screen. Having to organise her own 24hr intensive care at home and fundraise to pay for it, since the Greek public health system does not provide nor pay for long-term care at home for paralysed patients. She wants to have the option of choosing a dignified death when she can no longer stand the suffering but euthanasia is totally forbidden in Greece.

Woman Directed Film - Documentary Short

Gabardine

A Black performance poet experiencing sonic hallucinations attends a session with his therapist. The psychologist asks provocative questions which forces him to confront his crisis and guides him through his fractured subconscious mind. In treatment, the poet will have to face his grief and shame to save his life.

Documentary Competition

Breaking Plates

A raucous documentary about the not so silent women of the silent film era, 'Breaking Plates' defiantly asserts the principle that if we want to tell different stories, we have to tell stories differently. Move aside, Wonder Woman. Drop the pretence, Doris Day.  The film images that confine women to a ‘realistic’ role as housewife, nag, babe, or bitch have defined us for too long. Especially because in early cinema, before narrative conventions were ironclad, there were so many more ways to behave.  For decades, movies were made almost exclusively by men in Europe and the USA after 1925. So, the slapstick comediennes and cross-dressed cowgirls of early cinema, who were wild, powerful, rude, funny, and utterly out of male control, got forgotten, or worse, erased.  ‘Breaking Plates’ collaborates with the curators of ‘Cinema’s First Nasty Women’ to bring them back into view.  ‘Breaking Plates’ puts early films on the screen, and then we talk to the characters in them, reanimate their antics, and emulate their mayhem moves.  As we wear their clothes and battle their haywire machines, exploding gags, and eruptive bodies, we learn to wield humour as a weapon against the structures that contain us. 

Woman Directed Film - Documentary Feature

Café sans filtre

No Filter Café

Élie, Gabriel, Raphaël, Steeve, and Saïd are five teenagers with autism. While their paths would typically lead them to medicalized institutions, isolated from the world, an innovative project at the IME Cour de Venise is reshaping these predetermined trajectories. Over several years, these young people will take part in a tailored training program to learn culinary skills, plate presentation, order taking, and table service, all the way to running a real restaurant in the heart of Paris.

Documentary Competition

Abdo and Saneya

Abdo and Saneya is the story of an Egyptian farmer couple who are left to survive in New York City without English skills or knowledge of American life. Illiterate, they defy impossible odds to find a cure for infertility. Wrapped in naivety, they are perfect prey for the fast-moving, cutthroat New York. Their will to survive takes them from the brutal homeless world to the hellish kitchens of the restaurant business.

Feature Competition Category

Grains of Sand

Filmed over 8 years, Grains of Sand accompanies the filmmaker's mother and mother-in-law, artists and close friends, as they enter their ninth decade. Through conversation, memories and artwork, along with reflections by the filmmaker herself, they create together in a personal essayistic style, this positive coming-of-age story.

Woman Directed Film - Documentary Feature

Create That World

“Create That World” is a short film that offers an intimate glimpse into a vibrant, supportive studio in New York City, where artists living with mental illness find both a creative outlet and a lifeline. The film explores how art spaces can serve as a sanctuary, where social connection and artistic freedom help people not only create, but also reclaim a sense of purpose and belonging.

Documentary Short Film Competition

August 26

In the days after Kabul fell to the Taliban, Rahim, an Afghan military officer, had his exit visa but didn’t want to leave because…

Narrative Short Film Competition

Sisterhood

Against the backdrop of Florida's political divide, "The Calendar Girls of Southwest Florida" stand out as advocates for inclusivity. This group of senior dancers entertains for charity, showcasing diversity by welcoming TC Hannah, an African American, and Sue Goren, a Lesbian DJ and former convict, into their predominantly white group. In a state known for its contrasting laws, these dancers embody unity and acceptance through their actions.

Documentary Short Film Competition

Edge Of The Cliff

Edge of the Cliff is a haunting portrait of a woman pushed to her breaking point after sudden job loss, cultural tension, and the quiet unraveling of her marriage. When Susana, a high-powered executive, is laid off, she and her out-of-work writer husband, Simon, are forced to confront the unspoken weight of expectations — from their families, their cultures, and themselves. As their coping mechanisms pull them in opposite directions, cracks begin to form in their once-solid bond. What follows is a raw, intimate unraveling. Told through restrained performances and evocative visuals, the film mirrors a mind on the edge — with muted tones, a melancholic score, and deliberate pacing that hold space for reflection, empathy, and truth.

Narrative Short Film Competition

Báaxpee: This Ground

Báaxpee: This Ground, is a lyrical and intimate documentary that traces the life and spiritual legacy of Ben Cloud, revered medicine chief of the Crow/Apsaalooke Nation and central figure in the sacred Sun Dance tradition. Far more than a portrait, the film becomes a living archive — a ceremonial act in itself — offering rare access to the inner world of the Apsáalooke as they carry ancient ritual into the twenty-first century. Merging personal memory with cultural tradition, Báaxpee: This Ground, departs from conventional documentary form, embodying the quiet power and profound mystery of a spiritual practice rooted in land, lineage, and the unseen. Available with Spanish, German or Italian subtitles.

Documentary Short Film Competition

The Miraculous Transformation of the Working Class Into Foreigners

As in all industrialized European countries, social democrats and trade unions led the workers’ movement. And – although not simultaneously – these institutions had lost their impact all over Western Europe by the 1980s. Racist policies succeeded in driving a wedge between immigrant and native workers. This factor, together with the de-industrialization at the end of the 1970s, led to the decline of the classical workers' movement in Switzerland as well. Today, nobody talks about the «working class» anymore. The term «worker» has become synonymous with «foreigner». Filmmaker Samir uses private family photos, animations, music clips, and unseen archive material to tell the story of migration from Switzerland's southern neighbours in an entertaining way, from the post-war period to the present day.

Documentary Competition

Beirut Addio - Singing under the bombs

The incredible story of the Italian singer Joe Diverio is tied with that of the Lebanese civil war. 1982 marks Joe's life, Italy wins the World Cup and the war in Beirut rages.

Documentary Short Film Competition

TAPAGE

Nemo, 20, has just found out that he will soon be deaf. At the hospital, he catches the mischievous Lou stealing pharmaceuticals. Determined to escape this new reality that he can’t process, he decides to follow Lou through the night. As Nemo’s hearing disorder worsens and desire awakens between the two boys, Lou will teach him to let go in order to accept his condition.

Narrative Short Film Competition

Imagined Landscapes

Imagined Landscapes' is the first sight of a landscape the artist had always imagined but had never seen, as someone who grew up in the UK with a curiosity about their Armenian family. The film shows through a series of still camera shots, landscapes and medieval monasteries, alternately experienced as ancient spaces or as sites of modern conflict. 'Imagined Landscapes' explores cultural memory through landscape and examines our shifting ideas of homeland from the perspective of diaspora.

Documentary Short Film Competition

A Way to Be Together

In a New Jersey town divided by unseen borders, a Mexican immigrant community steps into the light. Their festival sparks pride and unity—but as fear grows, even joy becomes a radical act of hope in uncertain times.

Documentary Short Film Competition

Holy Ghetto

The harrowing quests of four individuals trapped in Tel-Aviv's Red-Light District, intertwined in sex-trafficking and addiction. Bound by hope, they embark on a spiritual journey to transcend their personal ghettos. Olga, abducted by sex traffickers at 17; Dave, an American who founded a shelter for women on the streets; Yana, a recovering addict and struggling mother of five; and Ohad, a former trafficker chasing redemption. Holy Ghetto is a film about hope and transformation reminding us that even in the darkest places, there is light.

Documentary Competition

The Last Wish

"During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ángel Flores, a Spanish actor, returns to Spain to fulfill the last dying wish of his theatre master, Miguel Lama. Ten years earlier, due to a personal tragedy, Ángel had escaped to Mexico, where he had become a TV soap star. Miguel Lama’s last wish for Ángel is to travel to a remote monastery up in the mountains of Northern Spain and there to read Dostoyevsky’s thousand-page-novel The Brothers Karamazov, each page three times, then to come to his graveside in the monastery cemetery every night to tell him about the progress made in reading the novel. The film is a tribute to the miracle of reading, Italian neo-realism, classical theatre, and anti-war activism. Languages: Spanish and Armenian, with English subtitles. "An incredible monastery drama." 37. Love & Anarchy - Helsinki International Film Festival, 2024. Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain. Western Armenian is spoken in the film. "

Feature Competition Category

Connie - the powers and possibilities of community engagement

“Connie” is a 30-minute documentary about the life and work of 91-year-old activist, women’s advocate, and inspirational leader Constance Bowles Eve. Her most important accomplishment was the creation of Women for Human Rights and Dignity, Inc. (WHRD) an initiative that helped incarcerated women by offering alternatives to incarceration, mentoring, job training, housing, and more. Connie also worked hand in hand with her husband, Arthur O. Eve, who was Deputy Speaker of the New York State Assembly from 1979 to 2002. The film seeks to inspire with Connie’s can-do spirit and deeply lived belief in collective action. Connie passed away on March 26, 2024 at age 91.

Documentary Short Film Competition

TOUT LE MONDE M'APPELLE MIKE

EVERYONE CALLS ME MIKE

Sailing around the world on their beautiful blue schooner, Jean, Isabelle and her son Damien, stop in Djibouti to fix the engine of their boat. There they meet with a taxi driver, Mike, who helps them find the part for their engine. As they do, he asks them to sail away with them. Jean is worried, the Aden Gulf is dangerous, so as they sail away towards the Seychelles islands, he decides to embark Mike. After a few days of sailing during which they learn to know each other, a Somalian fishermen boat comes towards them…

Feature Competition Category

Run Trip Life — Un viaggio attraverso il corpo, la distanza e la libertà

Run Trip Life — A Journey Across Body, Distance, and Freedom

Run Trip Life tells the real and symbolic journey of Marco, a disabled man who faces an intercontinental flight to San Francisco alone to collect a Google award. While his body imposes limits on him, his emotions move thanks to the daily voice of his partner, Milly, who supports him from Cagliari. A film about love, courage and the search for a new way of being in the world.

Documentary Short Film Competition

Oh My Beautiful Country: Journey to the West

Led by American photojournalist and documentary filmmaker Peter Sherman Crosby, this new U.S. TV series is a sequel to his 4-hour cross-China series, broadcast in 2022 on National Geographic TV / Asia, China Global TV Network, and ByteDance Video - reaching an estimated audience of 50-250 million. Cycling in mixed-gender relays, the 3,400-mile journey will test endurance, patience, humor, and nonviolent communication skills. Our multilingual teams will explore the USA’s ideals, diverse cultures, and communities across the political spectrum, seeking commonalities through sport, history, RV Life, campfire talks, and s’mores. As a non-scripted documentary and reality TV hybrid, this series is comparable to The Amazing Race, CNN’s United Shades of America, and Bourdain‘s Parts Unknown – all rolled into one.

Documentary Competition

Patriot

Bryan, a high school student, helps his girlfriend escape an ICE raid going on at their school. Problems arise when Bryan's father, the sheriff, assists with the ICE raids. Father and son must confront each other about what they believe is the right thing to do.

Narrative Short Film Competition

The Sky Was on Fire: Ballet & War in Ukraine

The Sky Was on Fire: Ballet and War in Ukraine

This film tells the story of the Russian cultural genocide against Ukraine—the story of the ballerinas and dancers who must make a choice: to leave the country, to stay and dance, or to pick up arms and fight.

Documentary Competition

Can we talk?

Mouloud tries to strike up a conversation with a woman in a park, but she seems uninterested in what he has to say.

Narrative Short Film Competition

It Is Up To Us

A brief history of racism in America, with the hope of promoting equity.

Documentary Competition

TOGETHER

In a world where social media distorts reality, traditional relationships are challenged. This documentary offers an intimate look into diverse couples' lives, showcasing love, partnership, and growth. It explores the joys, struggles, and complexities of relationships, with expert insights on evolving commitment, inviting reflection on human connection today.

Documentary Competition

MAC & CHEESE

Beneath Miki's crop-top lie 8 months of a rather fulfilling pregnancy, despite society's judgment against the “single mother” she's eager to become. Then a new neighbor - armed with a Mac & Cheese pastabox to heat up -, invites himself into her apartment. His visit extends beyond the cooking time, gradually devouring Miki's space.

Narrative Short Film Competition

HEADBANG

Through the lens of two different young women, Leila, from secular background, and Amara, from a religious one, HEADBANG explores the complex power of the hijab, and how a seemingly simple piece of cloth embodies both what the wearer imbues it with and what society project onto to it.

Narrative Short Film Competition

Say Her

Clay Marks is an aging, neurodivergent weightlifter who is mentally ill, resulting from growing up an orphan at the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls and witnessing countless acts of the rampant gun violence on the streets of Chicago...ironically, while working his "survival" construction job to help support himself as he chased his childhood dream of competing in the Olympic Games. His obsessive drive to go to the Olympics runs much deeper than merely harnessing his rage at a broken world for personal ambition. Through one final, desperate, futile run at the Games in the form of a crucible week-long training session at the historic Sayre Park Weightlifting Club (a world-renowned gym known for producing some of the best TEAM USA Olympians and coaches), Clay's destiny is revealed.

Feature Competition Category